


in writing

by theycallmesuperboy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Poe isn't actually dead obviously, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-08 01:10:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5477522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theycallmesuperboy/pseuds/theycallmesuperboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe Dameron, the name on Finn’s wrist, was dead. </p><p>He started walking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in writing

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this movie twice in two days. I'm a little (a lot) in love with Poe.
> 
> also oh my god someone else apparently posted a soulmate au with like nearly the EXACT same title earlier today and I didn't see it so i changed my title from 'in a name' to the one it has now

FN-2187 needed a pilot. And the prisoner needed a way out of the base. It wasn’t any more than that, but when he looked into his eyes, and said, “It’s the right thing to do.” He’d meant it. Briefly. He also really needed a pilot. 

“Okay, let’s do this.” He didn’t know why the prisoner trusted him so quickly, because he sure as hell wouldn’t have trusted a Stormtrooper, but he _did_ trust this guy. 

They ran to the TIE fighter, shooting the missiles as they escaped, heading back towards Jakku, _against everything FN-2187 was screaming_ , because this guy _had_ to get some resistance droid, with a fucking map to _Luke Skywalker_. But it worked way better than planned. “Did you see that? Did you _see_ that?” he yelled in excitement, after he took out the guns on the bottom of the ship. 

“Yeah buddy, I saw that!”

And then- 

“What’s your name?” the pilot asked.

“FN-2187,” he replied.

“FN- what?”

“That’s the only name they ever gave me!” he yelled back.

“Well I ain’t callin you that! FN, huh?” he said, “I’m calling you-” and for a brief moment, just a fraction of a second, he hesitated, before he said, “Finn. That alright with you?”

“Yeah, ‘Finn’, I like that!” FN-2187, no, _Finn_ , said, “But now you’re one up on me!”

“Sorry?”

“I don’t know your name!”

“Poe Dameron!” he yelled, and it was like a light switch turned on in Finn’s mind, because- but suddenly more missiles were coming at them, and Finn was firing and they were hit, spiraling down towards Jakku….

* * *

 

When he woke up on the planet, the light was practically blinding. It was desert for miles, for the entire planet. Man, he fucking hated this planet. But then he remembered Poe Dameron. He quickly unbuckled himself and ran towards the burning wreckage, yelling Poe’s name. 

“Poe Dameron!” he yelled, trying to get inside the TIE fighter, but it was _burning_ , and he couldn’t see past the smoke, and he saw Poe Dameron’s jacket- he pulled it from the crash, stepping back as sand spouted, knocking him off his feet as the wreckage was drawn into the earth. 

Poe Dameron, the name on Finn’s wrist, was dead. 

He started walking. 

* * *

Finn knew what soulmates were. He wasn’t supposed to- they never taught about them in education, and when the pair was executed when Finn was fifteen, Captain Phasma had simply called them “Matches.” It made sense- their designations on their wrists had the designation of another, who had the designation of the first. In other words, they had the name of their match on their wrists. Everyone had one, but most of the other Stormtroopers Finn knew had the designations of other Stormtroopers. After that execution, which had only been a problem because the pair had failed to report to Captain Phasma for reeducation and reassignment, no one failed to report. 

He’d met another who’d found his match, when FN-2003, known by the guys as “Slip,” had been relocated to his squad. He’d told them in the barracks, in secret, because he wasn’t supposed to have said anything about his transfer. Finn was pretty sure he only got away with it because it was an example of good behavior. Slip had told them that he’d met his match when he’d been in training, one of the captains. FK-1056, he’d shown them. FK-1056 had been relocated to the Snowtroopers. Slip hadn’t ever seen him again, Finn knew, because Slip had died in Finn’s arms on Jakku. 

It wasn’t until Finn was nineteen did he ever hear the words “soulmate” instead of “match.” He’d been on patrol around the Starkiller when he’d overheard Kylo Ren speaking with one of the generals. He hadn’t meant to overhear- everyone knew Kylo Ren was rather unstable, and knew when he was having one of his fits the best way to go was _away_ , but he’d heard the word “match” from the general and… he’d been interested. There wasn’t exactly a lot to do in the way of entertainment for them. It had been Ren who’d said the word _soulmate_. He’d been angry, as apparently the general had mentioned his family, and there wasn’t much in the way of rumors about Ren, as he had ultimate power over the base, but… there had been some talk that Ren had been raised around the… Force. Around people who believed in it, around people allowed to be with their matches. 

Finn had known, even then, that he wouldn’t find his match in the Stormtroopers’ ranks. The name on his wrist was a _name_ , not a designation. Poe Dameron. 

At the time, he’d wondered if that person, out there in the galaxy somewhere, was looking down at their wrist and wondering what the hell type of name “FN-2187” was. 

* * *

And then he met Rey. Rey, a scavenger on Jakku, who fought off two other scavengers with her stick, and then kicked _his_ ass because of the jacket. “You can understand that thing?” but she did understand the droid… Poe Dameron’s droid, the one that needed to get back to the Resistance base. 

* * *

“Do you… have one?” Rey asked, in a brief moment of peace, aboard the Millennium Falcon. They’d gotten a look at Han Solo’s wrist earlier, when he’d been fixing up some parts on the ship as they flew through space. She hadn’t say much since seeing the name ‘Leia Organa’ on his. 

But now she was looking at him curiously, but she shifted her arm. Finn’s gaze was drawn to her arms, covered in wrappings, his own wearing Poe’s jacket. He nodded, hesitantly, pulling up the sleeve of his jacket to show her the name. She reached out and grabbed his hand. “Have you met him?” she asked, eagerly. “Is he in the resistance, like you?” 

Finn nodded again, “I did meet him. Once. And yeah… he was.”

“Was?” she said, and he already saw the look in her eyes. Sympathy. 

“He died… on Jakku. We crash landed together.”

She gasped, “He was BB-8’s master!” 

“Yeah,” Finn said. At least BB-8 wasn’t around. Well, actually, this might make it trust him more. 

Rey looked thoughtful for a few moments, and then said, softly, “I’ve heard that the names, on our wrists, come from the Force linking two people together. For whatever reason, they’re meant to come in contact with each other.”

That made… a lot of sense, actually. He’d seen what the force could do. Stopped Poe’s blast in the air, held it there. And there was that… feeling, he’d had since he saw Poe was lost to the Jakku desert. Loss, maybe. He’d never really had something of his own before. He hadn’t even gotten to know him, beside that initial flight. Maybe that was it. Maybe that was the extent to his soulmate experience- someone who would help him escape that place, and maybe… it was now his job to help complete Poe’s mission, with his droid. 

“Have you met yours?” Finn asked, nodding at her arm. They were sitting crouched on the ground. 

She shook her head, “Nobody new ever really came to Jakku. Nobody but the troopers,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s one of them,” she said, snorting.

“Here, give me your hand,” he said, taking it before she had a chance to say anything. It was becoming a bad habit. He pushed up the wrappings and looked down at the name, “Nope, definitely _not_ a Stormtrooper.” 

“I know my family is coming back for me, maybe I’ll meet them then,” she said, smiling. She looked hopeful, and if Finn had any idea what a hopeless romantic was, he might have said she was one of them. She wanted a family. No, she wanted her family. But she so very badly wanted a place in this world, and what very little she remembered about the time before she’d been left on Jakku, she’d known that soulmates gave someone that, when they wanted it. 

“Yeah, maybe,” he said, hearing the whirring of BB-8 behind him. 

* * *

When they arrived at Maz’s castle, and there was talk of joining the fight against Evil, against the New Order… Finn couldn’t do it. He’d gotten Poe’s droid this far, he’d gotten it and Rey to someone who could take them to the resistance, and that was it. He was done. He wasn’t resistance, he was a Stormtrooper! He wasn’t anything she thought he was, and he told her that. Only… maybe, they had become something akin to family, so when she ran off into the forest, he knew he had to go after her. 

But then the Troopers came, with the TIE fighters, and Maz’s Castle exploded, burying them in the basement. And when they unburied themselves, they were quickly surrounded, and marched off… only to see the Resistance X-Wing flyers soaring overhead, taking out the Stormtroopers all around them.

And maybe Finn wasn’t Force-sensitive like Rey, or any of those others, but he would have known that flying anywhere. “That’s a damn good pilot!” 

His soulmate was alive. But Rey, Rey had been taken aboard the ship by Kylo Ren. And he had to get her back. 

* * *

They followed the X-Wings back to the Resistance base, the one Finn had almost thought he’d never see. And it was beautiful- hills and hangers and everything he’d thought a Resistance base would be like, but… he stood there, watching Poe climb out of the X-Wing. He wasn’t sure how to proceed, what to say. But BB-8 rushed past him, at the feet of it’s master when Poe took off his helmet and spoke to the little droid, looking up past the droid and up at Finn. He broke out in a grin, and started towards Finn. Finn ran towards Poe.

“Poe! You’re alive!” he said, grasping Poe’s arms in an embrace.

“I woke up at night, I was thrown from the fighter- BB-8 says you completed my mission!” he said, all at once. But he glanced at what Finn was wearing and said, “Hey, is that my jacket?” 

“Oh, sorry- here,” Finn said, starting to take it off, but Poe stopped him.

“No, keep it,” he said, eyeing the jacket, holding his arm again, meeting his eyes in sincerity. “It suits you.” After what must have been several seconds of accidentally staring into each other’s eyes, Poe said, “It was mine name, wasn’t it? On your arm. It must have been, fate wouldn’t have lead us this far if it hadn’t been. I almost didn’t say Finn, but… it suited you too.”

“We have… a lot to talk about,” Finn said, his fingers clasped around Poe’s wrist, where he knew his name must be. “But first… I need your help.”

* * *

Poe was alive, and he had their back. If Finn trusted anything in the world, it was his soulmate’s piloting skills, and his command over the other Resistance fighters. So then it was time to go get Rey, his first real friend, his new family. Any way possible.

He only technically lied, to get to the Starkiller, and once they were there, he did come up with a plan. They took down the shields, found Rey, and then…. everything went wrong, again. Solo was dead, Kylo Ren was chasing them in the forest, and Rey was unconscious. Finn was the only one left. So he took the lightsaber, and he stood. 

* * *

Finn felt hazy, but aware, for the first time in… what must have been days. The last thing he remembered was fighting Kylo Ren, holding Rey’s lightsaber. He felt an ache, all over, but… he felt a kind of comfort, beside him, and as he rose to awareness, he realized what it was- or rather, who. Poe was sitting beside him, and when he realized Finn was awake, he broke into a grin. “Hey, I’ve been waiting for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Click [HERE](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5927071/chapters/13631968) to find out who Rey's soulmate is!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Contact](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5927071) by [aquafizzy10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquafizzy10/pseuds/aquafizzy10)




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